Dear Colleagues,
< ?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
The AU summit in < ?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />
Enjoy your reading.
Global Health
1. TMIH – Per diems undermine health interventions, systems and research in Africa : burying our heads in the sand
Valéry Ridde; http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/123594897/abstract
The author opens the debate on the “perdiemitis” that has become an accepted fact of society in developing countries, not without impacting motivation and efficiency though.
2. KFF – African Leaders Agree To Expand Maternal Health Campaign As AU Summit Concludes
http://globalhealth.kff.org/Daily-Reports/2010/July/28/GH-072810-AU-Summit.aspx Although terrorism captured the headlines at the AU summit, participants nevertheless took eight new resolutions to address maternal and child deaths across the continent. Child Health and Global health advocates were cheering. Let’s see whether African governments will now live up to their commitments.
3. BMJ – Helping poorer countries make locally informed health decisions
Kalipso Chalkidou, Ruth Levine, Andrew Dillon; http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/341/jul16_1/c3651
Although the authors offer an insightful analysis of the influence of international partners on local development priority setting, their suggestion to overcome this by turning the widely recognized
4. Globalhealthpolicy – Institutionalizing justice: a framework convention on global health ?
http://www.globalhealthpolicy.net/?p=59
The current fragmentation of health aid is counterproductive, we need to move towards an integrated approach focused around basic rights, Sridhar and Gostin argue.
5. RAND – Intellectual Property and Developing Countries: A review of the literature
Emmanuel Hassan, Ohid Yaqub, Stephanie Diepeveen; http://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/2010/RAND_TR804.pdf (PDF 540 Kb)
This literature review presents the advantages and disadvantages of TRIPS for developing countries.
AIDS
6. The science and practice of HIV prevention
The Lancet; Full Text
If there was any consensus at the Vienna AIDS conference, it was no doubt on the importance of prevention as a strategy to defeat AIDS.
7. Obama accused over Aids funding
Sarah Boseley; http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/sarah-boseley-global-health/2010/jul/22/obama-administration-aids
Sarah Boseley is recovering from her excruciating “marathon” at the AIDS conference. She analyzes the AIDS funding crisis on her blog and argues that perhaps Obama is not the one to be singled out for blame. Others like Berlusconi (who always makes a nice villain, even in good times) have withdrawn much more from previous commitments. Most of all, AIDS activists need to remain united if they want to secure funding. Editors from Plos medicine go even further and plead for more cooperation between HIV, child and maternal strategies and advocates.
Aid
8. CGD – The End of ODA (II): The Birth of Hypercollective Action – Working Paper 218
Jean-Michel Severino and Olivier Ray; http://www.cgdev.org/content/publications/detail/1424253
Download (PDF, 1.34 MB)
“Severino and Ray use the lessons of the
9. HPP – The relationships between foreign aid, HIV and government health spending
Jeremy Youde; http://heapol.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/czq030v1
The author studied the link between HIV prevalence and amounts of aid funding. He also looked at the relation between AIDS-aid and Domestic AIDS funding and found evidence of an inverse relation.
10. All africa.Com – Niger : Food Crisis in the Sahel – Real Problem, False Solutions
Tidiane Kassé; http://allafrica.com/stories/201007291006.html
Once again
Russian Health Care reform
11. BMJ news – Russia embarks on £10bn reform of its “deplorable” health system
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/341/jul26_1/c4025
Every country in the world seems to be embarking on health care reform these days. American and Chinese health care reforms have been covered before in this newsletter. Now, the Russians kickstart their own reform process. BMJ News reports.